A major employer was not required to prevent pedestrians from using an onsite garden path whose moderate hazards were obvious to anyone who accessed it, the Victorian Supreme Court has found in an indemnity dispute.
Two employers have been fined a total of $690,000 for serious safety incidents involving labour-hire companies, with one resulting in the death of a 15-year-old boy. In the other, a migrant worker sustained extensive burns after being told he had to use an online dictionary to translate his work instructions into his native Mandarin.
Fines imposed on two related companies after a worker was killed have been increased from a total of $450,000 to $1.5 million, with the Victorian Court of Appeal stressing that prosecutors aren't required to prove that a safety breach caused an incident.
An employer that trained workers in lock-out procedures and ladder safety, but failed to "monitor and enforce" what was taught, has been convicted of OHS breaches.
A worker crushed by a forklift has been granted leave to seek damages for pain and suffering, after the Victorian Court of Appeal found that while he retained the majority of his functions, his capacity to enjoy his hobbies was "substantially impaired".
A second employer has been fined $250,000 over the Melbourne wall collapse that killed three pedestrians in 2013, while WorkSafe Victoria has charged an employer with 10 breaches of the OHS Act relating to the 2014 Hazelwood coal mine fire.
